


let me be your friend

by earlgrey_milktea



Series: milktea's saso2017 fills [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Friendship, Gen, Youkai, influenced heavily by Natsume Yuujinchou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 03:24:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11050293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgrey_milktea/pseuds/earlgrey_milktea
Summary: iwaizumi accidentally releases oikawa, a powerful ayakashi, and now it won't leave him alone.





	let me be your friend

**Author's Note:**

> original prompt thread [here](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/21522.html?thread=9904146#cmt9904146)

“Stop following me.”

“You should consider it an honour that a youkai as great as myself has presented itself to you.”

“I’d be honoured if you left me alone.”

The ayakashi screeches indignantly, floating over to the path in front of him. Hajime sighs, staring up at the ayakashi. It has the appearance of a human boy, around Hajime’s own age, with curly brown hair and large doe eyes as if it belongs in some glossy magazine. The only telling thing about it being more than human is the long blue yukata it’s wearing and how it’s drifting just a few inches off the ground. As if it wasn’t already tall enough. Hajime can feel his neck growing sore just from looking up at this angle.

“What do you want?” Hajime asks.

The ayakashi tosses its head. “You’re the one that released me, don’t  _ you  _ want anything? You’re lucky, you know. I’m not just some small fry trapped in a well. I’m extremely powerful and I can give you power you can only imagine.”

“Cool. Still not interested.”

“Why not?” the ayakashi whines. It follows when Hajime steps around it and continues down the path.

“Unless your power can help me with my math homework, I don’t need it.”

“But—But you can see me. You can see us! That’s incredible spiritual power you’ve got there already, man of child. Surely you wouldn’t mind more.”

Hajime stops abruptly. The ayakashi nearly crashes into him. He glares. “I didn’t ask for this power. I never have.”

When the ayakashi only blinks at him in surprise, Hajime turns and moves on. He needs to return before sundown, or he’ll cause trouble for his guardians again. He can’t afford that. Especially since he’s finally made a good impression on the people here. He doesn’t want to know what the people in this small town would look like if they grew fearful of him, too.

 

 

 

“Iwa-chan, Iwa-chan!”

Hajime can feel his blood pressure rising. The ayakashi hasn’t left him alone. It’s taken to following him to school and hovering beside him during classes. Hajime has great practice in pretending he’s just like any other teenager, without the ability to see and hear things out of the ordinary. But this youkai is about to make him flip a table if it doesn’t  _ shut up and leave him alone _ .

“Iwa-chaaaaan,” the ayakashi sings, propping its elbows on his desk. “What does this mean?” Long, slender fingers, the kind perfect for playing a musical instrument, tap against Hajime’s notes for the current calculus class.

“It’s math,” Hajime finds himself saying out loud. The ayakashi’s brown eyes light up, but the rest of the class has turned towards him.

“Iwaizumi-kun?” the teacher says. “Did you have anything to add?”

“Uh, no. Sorry. I just... had an epiphany.”

Later, when class is dismissed, Hajime makes eye contact with the ayakashi and gives it his best scowl. The youkai only grins back, lounging on top of his desk like it belongs there. Hajime kind of wants to punch it in its pretty face, but decides against it.

“Oi, Iwaizumi.” Hanamaki, the classmate that sits in the next seat over, waves his hand in front of Hajime’s face. “What was that about?”

“It sure is math,” says Matsukawa from behind Hanamaki. “Did you fall asleep in the middle of class again?”

“Ha ha,” Hajime says. He scratches his neck. The two of them have been really nice to him so far, the first to talk to him when he transferred in. He’s never had people that continued to approach him like this, even when the rumours have started about how he talks to himself and seems to glare into space at random times. These two never seemed to mind, though. Hajime is grateful.

“Hey, you’re still free this weekend, right?” Hanamaki asks him. “You’re coming with us to check out that new bakery in town.”

“You just need hands to carry home your precious cream puffs,” Matsukawa says. 

Hajime waves goodbye at them as they continue bickering out the doorway. He’s smiling, like he almost always is around them. Until there’s a poke in his side and Hajime goes back to scowling.

“Are they your friends?”

Hajime opens his mouth to answer, but something stops him. He shrugs. “What’s it to you?”

The ayakashi floats alongside him as he exits the school building. “You always seem to be alone when I see you. It’s nice that you have friends.”

Hajime glances at him sideways, but doesn’t say anything. The ayakashi isn’t chattering on or whining like usual. There’s a strange contemplative look in his eye. Hajime doesn't know what to make of it. The youkai looks different when he’s quiet, eyes reflecting sunlight and chin held high. Almost regal.

“What about you?” Hajime finds himself asking when they’re taking the shortcut through the woods. It’s not far from where he first found the ayakashi.

“Me?”

“Yeah. Where are your friends?”

The ayakashi laughs. “I’ve been trapped in a well for three hundred years, Iwa-chan. My friends are long gone by now.”

Hajime frowns. “I’m sure there’s got to be a few that stuck around. You guys live long, right?”

“Aw, how nice of you, Iwa-chan.” The ayakashi stretches its arms above its head. It peers up through the canopy of leaves above them. “It’s fine though. I’m used to things coming and going. I’ve been here long enough to learn to accept that.”

That’s kind of sad, Hajime doesn’t say out loud. He thinks about the numerous households he’s intruded upon over the years. He thinks about the many faces he’s come to know, the smiling ones, the angry red ones, the scared ones, the kind ones. He thinks he can understand what the ayakashi means.

“If...” The ayakashi glances at him curiously, a chocolate-brown lock falling over one eye. Hajime clears his throat. “If you’re quiet and don’t disturb me too much, you can... come along, this weekend. If you’d like.”

There’s no answer except for the trill of birds and rustling of leaves in the distance. Then the ayakashi is suddenly right in front of him, brown eyes wide and hands grabbing hold of Hajime’s. 

“Really? You mean that?”

Hajime glances away, willing himself not to blush. This is stupid. Curse his stupid weak human heart. “You don’t have to if you don’t want—”

“No! I want to! I want to very much!” The ayakashi beams at him. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been invited somewhere!” It suddenly leans into Hajime’s space. “Oikawa,” it says, pronouncing it clearly as if it’s a secret.

“Huh?”

“You can call me Oikawa, Iwa-chan.”

“Oh.”

Oikawa squeezes his hand, and only then does Hajime realize he hasn’t let go. “I’m glad you’re my friend, Iwa-chan!”

“Wh—Who said anything about being your friend!”

**Author's Note:**

> find me crying about natsuyuu and these boys @puddingcatbae on tumblr and twitter!!


End file.
